Miracle in the Majors

A night after clinching their third straight division championship, the Twins put a few new faces in the lineup and then started that assault on their next goal, taking a 6-4 lead two outs into the bottom of the seventh inning before pinch-hitter Juan Uribe hit a grand slam off rookie reliever Jesse Crain for the difference in the game.

Luis Rivas allowed a man on base on a fielding error and and J.C. Romero proceeded to walk the bases loaded before Crain was inserted into the game with two outs in the seventh.

After the Uribe's yarder, Crain induced Aaron Rowand to fly out to end the inning. The White Sox went on to an 8-6 victory.

Other than Crain's one mistake, the young players sparkled.

Shortstop Jason Bartlett got his first major-league hit and outfielder Jason Kubel, who started the season in AA New Britain, got his first major-league home run. When the ball from Bartlett's hit was thrown in, Rock Cats' alumni Torii Hunter caught it and tried to throw it into the stands.

"Everybody was going, 'No! No!,' " Hunter said. "I was trying to mess with him."

Kubel initially was given a fake ball with false information on it. There was nothing fake about his line: 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBI.

"He's got a real nice swing," Twins head coach Ron Gardenhire said. "It was nice to see him hit the ball hard."

"It's a good feeling," Kubel said. "(But) it doesn't really mean anything unless we win."

Michael Restovich clubbed a two-run homer in the second. Rookies had five of the Twins' 10 hits.

Twins utility player Michael Cuddyer was scratched from the original lineup after waking up Tuesday morning with a sore neck, and numbness and tingling in the fingers on his right hand.

He is to have a magnetic resonance imaging test this morning in Chicago. The initial examination by the medical staff Tuesday suggested he has a pinched nerve or possibly a herniated disk in his spine. If it's the former, he could be back in the lineup as early as today or Thursday. A disk problem could mean the rest of the season and postseason.

Twins first baseman Justin Morneau, who had a cortisone shot in his sore left hand Sunday morning, is expected to return to the lineup tonight.

The Twins haven't designated a starting pitcher yet for Thursday's series opener in Cleveland, but they're considering starting relief pitcher Grant Balfour and allowing him to pitch two innings, then backing him up with one of the young starters, such as J.D. Durbin.

Balfour recently was sidelined for two weeks by a sore shoulder and has appeared out of sync since returning to action.

"This would let him get his work and stretch him out, so he can just start off a game and get good and loose," Gardenhire said. "It's just something we're kicking around."